A very quiet weekend. It was very cold and windy - I went skating for a while in the park on Saturday, but Sunday was mostly an indoor day. Watched part of The Godfather on DVD, and finished the first several chapters of Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien was such a wonderful storyteller. I went up to see THE HOUSE on Sunday. They've gotten most of the front deck done, as well as most of the framing for the den wall. I'm hoping they can finish that front area and get the little half roof below the monitor windows finished before the end of the week.

I am going to lunch with my friend Gary today - we have a tradition of having Dim Sum on New Year's Eve Day. It will be nice to see him and catch up on things. Only four months before we go back to PNG to go diving - "Are we there yet??"

Jennifer and John have invited a few of us over to their house tonight. They have been kind enough to extend the invitation to spend the night as well, so that none of us have to drive back home. I'm sure it will be fun.

I have determined my New Year's Resolution. Well, maybe that's not entirely accurate. I have determined my New Year's Pet Peeve, and plan to disguise it as a Resolution in the hopes of getting my Pier neighbors to stop peeving me.

There are 175 units in this condo complex on four levels. The first floor is the parking garage and there is an elevator on either side for access to the other floors. Near each elevator the condo keeps four or five sturdy utility carts for the residents to use to carry things from the garage to their units.

The basic idea is to borrow a cart . . . and return it. A relatively simple concept in my mind. And, truth be told, everyone seems to have gotten the first part of it down pat. It's just the returning part that appears to be beyond the capacity of some. Walking down the long hallways of the complex, I often find empty carts that people [sloths] have used and then abandoned instead of spending the extra two minutes to return.

This is my peeve. It becomes my PET peeve when I go to the garage to get a cart and there aren't any and I must then start wandering the hallways looking for one. I don't know - maybe I am just too sensitive. I mean, I'm obviously not sympathetic enough to the fact that [the sloths'] time is more important than the rest of the mere mortals that live around them.

So I have a plan. I have written out the following as my New Year's Resolution and shall post it anonomously in the elevators on Tuesday morning.

My New Year's Resolution

On This First Day of the Year 2002
I hereby resolve that when I BORROW
A utility cart, I shallRETURN
It to the garage or elevator
So that my neighbors may
Use it when I am finished.

Through this resolution
I hope to show my appreciation
For having the ability to use the carts
And my respect for other people's time.

We'll see what happens.

~ ~ ~

Quote du jour:

"Youth is when you're allowed tostay up late on New Year's Eve.Middle age is when you're forced to."